If you couldn’t tune in yesterday afternoon to Signalnoise Broadcast 15, here is the recorded version. The highlight of this episode was announcing the Tron Legacy poster winners of the 304 entries from the post last week, as well as holding a surprise live giveaway. Big congrats to Roberto and Julien for winning copies of the original poster, and Patrick Cartelli for correctly naming 3 of the bounty hunters from Empire Strikes Back to win the new poster!

Outside of the poster stuff, we talked about illustration skills, info graphics, color process in Photoshop, legal issues, diplomas versus solid portfolios, focusing on specific subjects while studying design, Wii Tennis, art shows and much more. Thanks again for everyone who dropped in, and I’ll see you next Thursday at 3pm EST!

Here is a fantastic example of a personal project relating to an existing brand/product. The talented Matt Stevens decided to do some visual interpretations of Nike’s famous Air Max 1 sneaker, keeping the same general layout for each design and messing with concept, style and color treatment. I plucked a few of my favorites for this post, but check out the entire run. Just look at all the diverse styles.

Not only are all of his fun interpretations well executed, but he’s drawing on all kinds of nerdy material like comics, films, cartoons, toys as well as paying homage to some of his favorite artists and designers like Olly Moss, Aesthetic Apparatus, Aaron Draplin and more. Matt is taking something and making it his own, and he’s obviously having a lot of fun. That’s reason #1, keep rockin’ Matt!

Here are a few preview images of the upcoming Signalnoise t-shirt releases, dropping in August. The response to the launch of the t-shirt line has been nothing less then overwhelming so I immediately started on the designs for the next installment. A couple of these designs call back to my childhood which was full of cartoons and playing with Lego on my bedroom floor. I enjoy creating things that are funny, interesting and nostalgic … with a bit of metal thrown in for good measure.

I will be working on moving these designs (and perhaps one other) into production over the next week or so once the designs and numbers are finalized, and they will be available in the Signalnoise Store after the full shipment is received. Stay tuned for these ones, kids.

That being said, I am working hard to fulfill the many orders I received over the past 2 weeks. I never expected to have so many orders to send so quickly, which is a good problem to have. :) However, all orders are being taken care of as quickly as possible and I appreciate your patience as I get your wares to you.

Thanks so much for the continued support, everyone! You really turned this new Signalnoise venture into a super fun ordeal.

As with a lot of people, I was pretty pumped to see the new Tron Legacy trailer from the San Diego Comic Con hit the web last week, revealing more of the story, characters and super slick neon design of costumes and vehicles. I watched it a bunch just to eat up the overall design.

A year ago when the initial footage for Tron Legacy was released I set about creating my own poster for the film, being a huge fan of the direction and style. My poster flew all over the web, and was even mistaken by Netflix as being the official release which gave me a pretty good laugh. But, the design and palette of the film underwent a bit of a change since that initial footage was released, resulting in my poster being a touch obsolete. Still being pumped for the movie, I cracked open my old Photoshop file and began revising my original design to reflect the new direction.

This was a really fun exercise, where I had to revise all of the important elements including the disc design, neon color treatments and lighting effects. I wanted the new version to reflect some of the style updates including the grey-blue architecture design and brilliant amber lighting seen on the character’s wardrobe and vehicles. Here are a few of my disc vectors, including the updated version:

The designs aren’t 100% accurate to the concept design of the film or anything, I just wanted to make this poster interesting and fun. At the time, I presumed the official poster once released would showcase the main actor or something,so I wanted to do the opposite and focus on the film content and style. I treated the revision as if Disney needed the update based on what has been happening during production. As much as I would like to design something for Tron Legacy, this poster design is not official by any means. Just a personal project for the fun of it.

I will be sending this poster to the print shop super soon and will figure out some methods of getting this into peoples’ hands, along with updating all of the Tron Legacy wallpapers I had previously released. Stay tuned!

Happy Friday, everyone! I’m currently on a small trip outside the city to do some relaxing and wasn’t planning on getting back to the blog until my return, but as you can imagine I’m pretty excited about this new trailer for Tron Legacy released at the San Diego Comic Con. Disney is doing a great job of showing us a few more bits with every new release, and this trailer doesn’t disappoint. Just look at all that tasty neon action, love it.

Tron Legacy poster giveaway!

I have a few copies of my Tron Legacy poster left over from a small print run last year, and I think it’s about time for another Signalnoise giveaway. Let’s keep it simple, just drop a comment on this post and you will be entered into the draw to win 1 of 2 Tron Legacy posters. Just one comment per person, or you will risk getting booted out. This contest will go until next Wednesday (July 28) and I will announce the 2 winners on the Signalnoise Broadcast the following day, Thursday at 3pm EST.

Here is some excellent work coming out of Boulder, Colorado by the talented Anthony Dimitre. I have always enjoyed simplified illustration and logos, stuff that might appear on national parks signage or cub scout badges, and Anthony’s ability to capture an image with very few shapes is certainly of that ilk. I want that snail on a shirt.

News: Unfortunately there will be no Signalnoise Broadcast this week as I am busy packing and shipping t-shirts, then am off for a little trip until Sunday. But next week things will be back on schedule with the broadcast, along with more fun t-shirt news. Have a great weekend, everyone!

This Tuesday I would like to post a simple compilation of design talks on TED. For those of you unfamiliar with TED, it’s the premiere source of inspiration and forward thinking on the web with over 700 talks across an array of issues and topics. But for now, here are a few of my favorite talks dealing with art, design, inspiration, ambition and chasing your goals. If you have a little chunk of time to have a watch, or just play these in the background as you work, you won’t regret it.

PS. Thanks so Scott for bringing that Marian Bantjes talk to my attention. Great stuff.

Lets start Monday off with a whole bunch of fun. When I was a kid I spent a lot of time drawing cars, most of which involved the General Lee, the A-Team van or K.I.T.T. all jumping, smashing into one another or speeding down a road. I believe my dad was the one who first taught me to draw the general shape of a car from side profile, making sure I got the doors and windows in the right place.

Well, check out the work of Norwegian artist Fred Lammers, aka Fred Boss. He does lots of other amazing illustration work, but I couldn’t get enough of these cartoony custom cars he had posted on his Myspace. Just love them for so many reasons. Some are long and sleek, others squat and blocky not to mention the attention to detail including logos, striping and beautiful color treatments. He even lays them out like magazine ads from the ’50s. Awesome.

I really hope Fred has or will be working with either Pixar or Hot Wheels in the future because this sort of thing should not go unnoticed in the film/toy industry.